XXXTentacion Ruled Ineligible For Posthumous Grammy Nomination In Best New Artist Category

By Brent Furdyk.
18 Oct 2018 4:34 PM

Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/TNS via Getty Images— Photo: Getty

Slain rapper XXXTentacion has reportedly been deemed “ineligible” to be nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Artist category.

According to the Hits Daily Double website, the reason has to do with the timing of the release of his debut album, 17, which dropped on Aug. 25, 2017 — five weeks prior to the start of the current award eligibility year.

Had XXXTentacion been ruled to be eligible and then received a nomination, he would have made Grammy history as the first person ever to receive a posthumous nomination in that particular category.

The late hip-hop artist (real name: Jahseh Onfroy) was shot and killed by armed gunmen in June while leaving a South Florida motorcycle dealership.

XXXTentacion isn’t the only recording artist to be ruled ineligible to be nominated in the Best New Artist category, for an array of reasons having to do with the category’s somewhat complex rules, which state that the category is open to “any performing artist or established performing group who releases, during the eligibility year, the recording that first establishes the public identity of that artist or established group as a performer.”

Camila Cabello and Niall Horan are therefore ineligible, as both came to prominence in groups (Fifth Harmony and One Direction, respectively). Other artists who aren’t eligible nor nominations in this category include Cardi B, Post Malone and Canada’s Daniel Caesar.